Love (and Smores) Will Hold Us Together

I don't know why God chooses to bless me with such abundance, but I guess that's for Him to know and me to most likely never fully understand. I can live with that.

Friday, I got to do one of my favorite things in the world. I got to make use of the fire pit in my backyard again. We had a really good crowd come over, just enough chairs and stumps to accommodate for everyone. Once again, great company, some solid background music to set the mood, and a gorgeous fall evening. Oh! and SMORES!!! Here's one aspect of the night I was not expecting: I bought four bundles of wood that I thought, maybe we'll go through it all maybe we won't. We burned all of it! Six hour campfire!

Saturday presented another opportunity for a great memory. I went to a concert with a group of friends. Matt Maher, Addison Road, and Tenth Avenue North. The really awesome thing about a Christian rock concert in my mind (besides the fact that it was 1/3 of the price of any other concert I've ever been to) is that it was so much more personal. There is a message in their music that I can really connect with, regardless of faith. My faith certainly strengthens my belief in that message, but getting through the trials of life together with love and forgiveness, I believe, is something rooted into human nature regardless of what your religious beliefs are. I was also moved that night to begin sponsoring a child in Indonesia. I'm really excited to start this overseas relationship in which I am contributing to a change in this world. Ari Putra Dwi Ramadhan is 12 years old and lives in an area of the world that is subject to many injustices, especially for children. I'll certainly be updating on the progression of the sponsorship.

After the concert, we went to Winstead's. I have...had a bucket list item that I needed to take care of. Over the summer, I had tag-teamed the Skyscraper challenge. Tonight, I was ready to face it on my own. A little encouragement from the people around me, and I was able to pound home the tall shake. Most importantly, I didn't throw up afterwards!

Again, another incredible weekend. My blessings are countless like the stars.

Non-Stop Fun!

What a weekend! To kick it off, I was invited to the Theta Phi Alpha "Theta Phi in Disguise" dance. I was asked by someone and the idea behind it is that neither myself nor the girl whom I was asked for knew that we were going with each other. There was a part of me that really wanted to know who it was because I didn't want it to end up being someone who I didn't know very well, making for a very awkward evening; but it turned out fine. My very fine date was a good friend, Julia Krolikowski. The fun wasn't over when the music stopped either. A group of us went back to Julia's house and we all had chocolate chip pancakes. Yum!

The next morning started early as a small group of us returned to St. Francis Xavier School to do some more manual labor. Not as intense as last week as we only worked for three hours, but we still got a lot of work done. Afterward, I went to a four hour retreat for my fraternity that me and my Brother, Brian Golka put together. Attendance was less than we would have liked, but those who did come gave us a lot of positive comments on the day; so that felt really good that our plans came together and were appreciated by everyone that came.

To cap off the weekend, I went and got bricks with a couple of friends that we found on Craig's List. Fifty bricks, fifteen dollars. Why did we buy fifty bricks? Well, my backyard was lacking a fire pit. No longer is that a problem. I completely ignored any of my responsibilities, and we christened it with its first use on Sunday night. A couple hours underneath the beautiful night sky, a raging fire, good music, and good company - not a care in the world. Just what the doctor ordered. I plan on making good use of that fire pit in the future with numerous nights of hanging out with friends and eating smores!

Service at SFX Merits Relaxation

This past weekend, I went to do service across the street at the old St. Francis Xavier School. The building is old and run-down. The playground area wasn't much better. It seemed that it had missed its appointment for routine maintenance by a couple of years. The foliage made it look like a jungle out there. Unfortunately, there were only eight guys that showed up to take on the task, so it took a lot longer than we should have been there, but it was a really a great time to go out there and work with the guys that did show up. I'm going to work there again this coming Saturday for a few hours in the morning. I'm a fan of the physical labor. I don't know why, but it does make me feel a lot more productive doing physical labor. I can feel it through my entire body. Having said that, the rest of my day was planned out for me.

After the long day out in the sun, my roommate and I came home, cooked lunch (pasta and meatballs, YUM!) and then we started watching a football game together...then I woke up. We had both fallen asleep on our respective couches for two and a half hours. We watched the end of the game and then got ready for the evening.

We went out with a large group to Spin! Pizza down near the Plaza. That was a really great time. Reasonably priced food, great service, great company with friends. After Spin! I came back and watched a movie with another group of people. Jurassic Park. Classic.

A Langfield Weekend

I got to go home for fall break. Fall break is a great opportunity for students to take a breather in the middle of the semester, catch up on sleep, kick their feet up...not so when I go back home to the life of the Langfields. To start, my mom had a family emergency and had to go to Canada for three days; in result, I had to play soccer mom for the week, taking my younger siblings to school, picking them up, taking them to practices and games. And I thought I would get to catch up on sleep.

I got to spend some quality time with every one of my family members though. Some racquetball with my oldest brother, Buffalo Wild Wings and the Avalanche game with both of my older brothers (Avs won 4-3 in OT), bowling with four of the five of my siblings. I got to see my youngest brother's volleyball games, my younger sister's soccer game (she scored the one and only goal), and my brother, who is the senior QB, I got to see his football game. As far as time with my parents, I got to sit back and have some great conversations with both of them. I love all of my family so much.

Highlight of the weekend. My family was invited to a wedding. It was on Saturday night and that was the only night that I was going to be able to hang out with a couple of friends from high school. At first I wasn't going to go - in fact I missed the wedding itself. My dad called later in the evening and told us to come down to the reception. We came from Buffalo Wild Wings (twice in one week, awesome) so I was dressed in jeans, t-shirt, tennis shoes, and my infamous, extremely faded Justin Boots hat. At first it was a little uncomfortable, but once the music started playing and we got to dancing, it didn't matter. I burned up the dance floor once again, and got to dance with some very pretty girls in the process.

I can't wait to go back home again. Six more weeks until I get a whole week off for Thanksgiving. Hopefully, I'll actually get some sleep this time...

Speedway and Homecoming

This weekend was...full, to say the least. It all began with making fifteen breakfast burritos at 12:30am on Saturday. A group of guys went out to the Kansas Speedway, meeting in the parking lot at 6:00am and I thought that it would be a good use of some of the 60 eggs that my mom bought for me at Costco over family weekend. We clocked into work at 7:00am. The real work didn't start until about 11:00am, but who's keeping track right? Until then, there was some napping and studying for midterm exams that were coming up. We spent the rest of the day running up and down the stairs of the grandstand in the midst of tens of thousands of NASCAR fans. Side note, great atmosphere out at those events. I'm not a particular fan of NASCAR, but the fans are great and it was really cool that they had someone lead a prayer before the National Anthem. I have never seen that at any other sporting event, and honestly, that ought to be the way everyone does it. Sunday was rinse, dry, repeat as far as the speedway goes.

Back track to Saturday after we got back from the fundraiser. As if the day hadn't already been long enough, I decided to go to the homecoming dance. Great idea, right? You're only young once, and even though it was a long, hard day at the fundraiser, I could not pass up the opportunity to show off my white boy moves. It was a great way to get my mind off of my recent break-up. No need to delve into that though. I had a terrific time at homecoming (although the DJ could have played at least one other genre of music besides hip hop). I don't mind hip hop, I'll dance to it all night long; and I did, but for goodness sake switch it up a little bit please. Besides, I'm into my country music, and all I asked for was one country song and I would have been satisfied, but she never gave it to me. It wasn't until a group broke out into Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places" that I got my fix for the evening. The next day was long and tiring, running food and drinks to the fans at the speedway, but I wouldn't have changed a thing.